Don't have the same opinion about things as the person who treats you wrong, or the opinion he wants you to have, but see things as they are.

- Marcus Aurelius (the only philosopher-emperor in Western history)

Compared with the 30,000-strong expansion of the Tripoli Kingdom and the 75,000-thousand-scale expansion of the Numidian Kingdom, the expansion of the Carthaginian Kingdom is much more atmospheric and orderly; The Carthaginian Senate, upon learning of the frenzied expansion of the Numidian kingdom, immediately began a large-scale recruitment campaign in the provinces of Africa and Baissasien. The wealthy Kingdom of Carthage is not comparable to these two countries, and the heritage of hundreds of years of Mediterranean hegemony is not something that ordinary people can imagine.

The first round of conscription for the Kingdom of Carthage was simply the recruitment of thirty-five thousand recruits and the formation of three new legions; The first two legions were the same 15,000 troops, and their specific strength configuration was: 3,000 slingers, 2,000 javelins, 5,000 Iberian infantry, and 5,000 Libyan spearmen. The third legion was more elite, consisting of 3,000 Punelites and 2,000 shield cavalry; Moreover, these 35,000 troops are all well-built weapons and equipment, which are far from being comparable to ordinary recruits.

Although the current Kingdom of Carthage is no longer the overlord country it once was, it is not a weak country that can be provoked by any country; Even in the absence of Hannibal, the Kingdom of Carthage was a presence to be reckoned with. After both sides had finished their preparations for war, it was only a matter of time before war came; At this time, the war against the Kingdom of Tripoli escalated into a war between the Kingdom of Numidian and the Kingdom of Carthage after the arrival of Vimini's army in the Great Leptis.

In order to deal with the possible surprise attack of the Carthaginian kingdom, Zuguta ordered his henchmen Abdeshim and Gillen to lead a newly formed army to garrison the province of Numidia, and cooperate with the governor of the province of Numidia, Sephax, to defend the entire province of Numidia. For the time of his reign as king was not very long, and the provinces of the kingdom of Numidia were not very peaceful; Therefore, the original garrisons of each province continued to be stationed in each province without moving.

That is to say, the original garrison of the province of Numidia still sits in the province of Numidia under the command of its commander Jubal; Although the so-called Jubal Legion consisted of only 3,000 javelinmen, 1,000 slingers, and 1,000 javelinmen, it was also the former regular garrison of the Numidian Kingdom, and its combat effectiveness was much stronger than that of the newly formed legions. The army of the 5,000 Provincial Legions plus the 30,000 troops of the two new legions. Not to mention whether or not to attack Carthage; At the very least, it was not a big problem to hold the province of Numidia.

And Zuguta himself personally commanded the army of recruits of the three legions and the border of the Kingdom of Tripoli where the Ahmed Legion and the Jugurdah Legion were stationed; Not to mention the combat effectiveness of the three recruit legions, the total strength of the Juguda Legion and the Ahmed Legion alone has exceeded 20,000, and the so-called defense of the Tripoli Kingdom is simply a joke in the eyes of Tulguta. Originally, Tulguta continued to confront the army in the Kingdom of Tripoli, but a sudden event caused the war to come.

That morning. On a whim, Tulguta wanted to inspect the army in the most advanced barracks; This is also a good thing that can improve the morale of the soldiers, and the generals will naturally not oppose it. So Zuguta set out with three henchmen, the commanders of the legion, Niptasan, Egclos, and Gaia; On the way, they happened to meet Juguda and Ahmed, who had gotten up in the morning to hunt, and everyone went to the barracks together. As a result, when I came to the barracks, I found that the soldiers in the barracks not only did not practice normally; Instead, they were scolding the king of Tripoli on the opposite side.

The confrontation between the two armies in front of the battle was very normal. Not at all surprising; But it happened that at this time the army of the Kingdom of Tripoli was insulting the mother of His Excellency Zuguta. Because Tuguta was born out of wedlock, his mother was often criticized; However, no one has ever dared to say this to their face. Now it's good, most of the soldiers of the Kingdom of Tripoli are rude, and the words they say are simply unbearable; When Tsuguta heard these curses, he was furious and ordered the cavalry to attack.

five thousand shield cavalry of the Ahmet Legion, two thousand long shield cavalry and two thousand camel cavalry of the Juguda Legion, fifteen thousand javelin cavalry of the three recruit regiments; A huge cavalry battle group totaling 24,000 was thus launched under the orders of Tulguta. The army of the Kingdom of Tripoli on the opposite side had long been accustomed to such a scolding war, and did not expect that the Kingdom of Numidia would suddenly send a large army to attack them; This military camp consisting of 5,000 elites of the Kingdom of Tripoli and 20,000 recruits was thus surrounded.

Under the galloping of thousands of cavalry horses, the Tripoli army, which had no time to run back to the barracks, was soon trampled into mud by the war horses of the Numidian cavalry; The remaining 15,000 soldiers also cowered in the barracks and did not dare to fight. Even the 5,000-strong army, which claims to be the elite of the Kingdom of Tripoli, has never seen a charge of 24,000 cavalry; All of the Tripoli kings** were frightened by the charge of the cavalry at the behest of Tulguta.

However, this alone could not completely remove the anger in Tulguta's heart; He ordered the cavalry to surround the camp of the king of Tripoli. Let the 6,000 archers under the three legions start to shoot rockets into the barracks. The camp built by the King of Tripoli's ** team is naturally a wooden camp, so how can it resist the attack of rockets? Soon, a raging fire broke out throughout the barracks; The fire and water were ruthless, and it was not only the huge barracks that burned down, but also all the grain, grass, materials and soldiers in the barracks.

However, in his rage, Tulguta had no intention of accepting captives; All the soldiers of the King of Tripoli's ** team who ran out of the barracks and wanted to surrender were mercilessly shot by the archers. Even if someone occasionally escaped the archers, they could not escape the pursuit of the cavalry; Those who want to surrender or flee will inevitably die, and the remaining Tripoli king's ** team can only choose to retreat in the barracks and be slowly smoked to death.

The burning barracks lasted for two days, and the flames were clearly visible even from dozens of miles away; The news of the outbreak of war does not need to be disseminated to everyone. When Vimini learned the news that the Numidian army had crossed the border and annihilated 25,000 defenders the next day, she only sighed helplessly, because the war had finally broken out; The king of the Kingdom of Tripoli, on the other hand, was like the sky had fallen. The army of the Kingdom of Tripoli, which is 25,000 in ashes, is in ashes, what will be done to resist the attack of Tulguta?

The heart of the king of Tripoli was dead, but it did not affect the high morale of Vimyna; For Vermina, there was no enemy to fear, except the invincible Hannibal. The Roman Republic, which was once strong, could not. The Numidian kingdom in front of us is even more impossible; In order to better meet the army of Tsuguta, Vimyna immediately decided to leave the city and take the initiative to launch an attack on the Numidian army.

In this regard, the king of Tripoli did not agree to it. He even suspected that this was the method used by Victoria to shed the shell of the golden cicada; Under the pretext of going out of the city to deal with Zuguta, he actually fled back to Carthage in a hurry. Of course, it was impossible for the King of Tripoli to hide this little bit of caution from Vimyna, who was so angry and laughing that he let his army kidnap the entire royal family of the Kingdom of Tripoli on the spot; Then he sent 5,000 recruits from the Tripoli Kingdom to directly escort the royal family of the entire Tripoli Kingdom to Carthage for refuge.

But Vimina didn't know. On the contrary, his move was exactly what the king wanted; The king of Tripoli was unwilling to face the Numidian army under the command of Zuguta. The reason why the army was actively expanded to prepare for war before. It was nothing more than his wishful thinking that under pressure from the Kingdom of Carthage, the Kingdom of Numidia might abandon the war; Now that war has really broken out, do you still think that His Majesty will continue to stay and defend against the Numidian army? All he lacked was a legitimate reason to escape, and Vimyna did what he wanted.

After the arrangement of the king of Tripoli was concluded, Vimyna ordered the remaining 5,000 recruits of the kingdom of Tripoli to be responsible for the garrison of the Great Leptis; Of course, Vegina did not embarrass them, but only asked them to maintain order in the city when the war came. Once the Numidian army really reached the city of Plethys. They just need to lay down their arms and surrender directly; And Vermina himself personally led the 5,000 elite troops under his command to take the initiative in the direction of the Numidian army.

Vimini was not stupid enough to become the second most famous general in the Carthaginian kingdom after Hannibal, and he would not be stupid enough to take 3,000 Iberian infantry and 2,000 yuan shield cavalry to challenge the huge Numidian army head-on; Nor did he think about reversing the current situation with only 5,000 troops under his command. The Numidian army in front of him had nearly 70,000 troops, and he only had 5,000 troops under his command; What Vimini wanted to do was to weaken the Numidian army by attacking.

Carthage is not the only country in North Africa that can use war elephants, but also the Kingdom of Numidia and the former Kingdom of the Sahara. It's just that their war elephants are not as good as those used by Carthage. As a famous Carthaginian general, Vimira was very familiar with the use of war elephants, in other words, he was also very familiar with the weaknesses of war elephants; As long as he took advantage of this, Vimini felt that he could do a miracle and inflict a heavy blow on the Numidian army.

In order to realize his idea, Vimini also took with him three thousand bows and arrows and all the black oil of the Kingdom of Tripoli when he led his army out of the Great Leptis; This black oil is a good thing. Although the smell is very pungent, it is very difficult to extinguish once burned, and it is a sharp weapon for fire attack. After preparing all the things he needed, Victoria's Secret led his army straight to his destination; A hill pack that is easy to defend and difficult to attack.

This hill pack was a specially chosen ambush site for Vimina when he came to the Kingdom of Tripoli and observed the terrain; With Vimyna's eyesight, it is not difficult to see that once this battle breaks out, the Kingdom of Tripoli will not be able to stop the attack of the Numidian army. So, from the very beginning, the purpose of the Vimina was to inflict heavy losses on the Numidian army through raids; In order to lay the foundation for superiority in the future decisive battle between the Carthaginian army and the Numidian army.

Behind the hill is a gentle forest area, but in front of it is a steep slope; The entire hill is covered with dense woods. Less than fifty meters ahead of the steep slope is the road that leads from the kingdom of Numidia to the Great Leptis; Due to the terrain, the sides of the road are not smooth, which makes the troops walking on the road appear more crowded, and the casualties in the event of an attack will be more severe.

As for why in the Kingdom of Tripoli, a sparsely wooded country, there is such a small mountain covered with forests. That's not understandable for Victoria's Secret; In Vimyna's opinion, as long as his plan can be carried out without incident, then this will be the first major defeat of the Numidian army! Arrange the three thousand Iberian infantry in this hill bag, and order them to smear their arrows with black oil; Victoria's Secret then took the remaining 2,000 cavalry to another ambush site.

The task of these three thousand Iberian infantry was to cause chaos. The remaining 2,000 cavalry were responsible for taking advantage of the chaos to surprise the extremely ineffective recruits of the Numidian army in order to expand the confusion and cover the retreat of the Iberian infantry. The ambush site chosen by Vimina for the two thousand cavalry was a wheat field; As long as the cavalry put their horses down and hid in the wheat field, the wheat that was about to ripen would hide the traces of the cavalry. When everything was ready, Victoria's Secret returned to the hill to await the arrival of the Numidian army. (To be continued.) )